world cup 2014

[ilovefriedchicken]

also not to undermine tim howard but i feel his performance against belgium is getting overrated, particularly here in merica

 

dont get me wrong he is unequivocally a top 10 gk worldwide and imo maybe top 5

 

still alot of the bajillion saves he made werent really spectacular and were weak efforts by oddly hesitant belgium players

 

ochoa's brazilian shutout imo is the best gk performance of the cup so far.  imo that neymar header save might even be better than gordon banks save and that is considered the goat save

[SuE]

Tim Howard Lost, But He Just Had the Best Match of the World Cup (FiveThirtyEight)

 

 

Ochoa / Banks

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVsU07ARgPQ

[Fuuma]

M'Bolhi also went the distance and he plays in the Bulgarian league or some shit, I'm pretty sure he's soon coming to a more competitive environment.

[Rob060]

also not to undermine tim howard but i feel his performance against belgium is getting overrated, particularly here in merica

 

dont get me wrong he is unequivocally a top 10 gk worldwide and imo maybe top 5

 

still alot of the bajillion saves he made werent really spectacular and were weak efforts by oddly hesitant belgium players

 

ochoa's brazilian shutout imo is the best gk performance of the cup so far.  imo that neymar header save might even be better than gordon banks save and that is considered the goat save

 

not all of the saves were gilt-edged chances, but i'd say at least 25-30% of them were. that's still 4-6 goals he saved that other keepers may not have gotten and is still a huge performance. add to that all the usual saves for half chances that he's expected to make and it's still one of the best keeper displays in history.

Edited July 3, 2014 by Rob060

[ilovefriedchicken]

yeah howard was terrific no doubt about it

 

dat ochoa save tho

[uhhuh69]

both teams for me just couldn't score. it was alright play until they got around the box, but neither team could put it in the net. france were way too cautious

[digitalmountain]

What a save by Neuer in the last 10 seconds of the match!

[ROYALEFATALE]

sad to see France go, they were really exciting in the group stages, also had the classiest kits in the tournament.

[uhhuh69]

brazil fans are the worst

[ilovefriedchicken]

good to see maicon in

 

seems really passive though.  would love to see some of those circa 2010 drives

[rafsemens]

brazil just gonna cheat their way through this whole tournament & the refs aren’t gonna stop em out of fear of getting shot down by a militia or something? the shit they're getting away with and every single call going their way is getting a lil annoying now...

[ilovefriedchicken]

glorious fk by luiz

 

but yeah brazils slidetackling everyone

[Rob060]

Ugliest game of the tournament.

[Vicarious]

http://gfycat.com/ScentedJampackedArmyworm

Christ almighty. Hope Zuniga gets fucked by FIFA. 

Edited July 5, 2014 by Vicarious

[Rob060]

ref let way too much go, lost control of the match really early and never got it back.

[Kasper]

brazil just gonna cheat their way through this whole tournament & the refs aren’t gonna stop em out of fear of getting shot down by a militia or something? the shit they're getting away with and every single call going their way is getting a lil annoying now...

It's absolutely ridiculous what they got away with, completely agree. After that early first goal, they were just like we're gonna kick the hell of of Colombia (and Rodriguez especially) and the ref just let them get away with anything. Could have easily gotten 6-7 yellows. To be fair, after a while Colombia started to reciprocate, but I feel it's only normal after being kicked around so much. It's really sad as it turned into an ugly, violent game.

Colombia should have played with a little more composure though. They were always rushing their play and uselessly lost possession way, way too often. I like fast paced attacking football, but they needed to buildup they plays way better by slowing the game down sometimes if they are too beat great teams with good defence, which they hadn't really faced in this tournament yet.

Without neymar and thiago silva, I don't give much chance to Brazil against Germany, especially with the way they have been playing. They are so an unlikeable team too, I can't wait to see them go!!!

Btw, did Fred even touch the ball once? I cannot fathom for the life of me why scolari is still starting him every game!!!

[digitalmountain]

Refereeing this world cup has gotten ridiculous in terms of carding, culminating in Neymar's injury (broken vertebrae) yesterday.

It's the 87th minute, there's no advantage gained from fouling him, and if you see the replays, Zuniga knew what he was doing. And there is not even a yellow for it, when there have been straight reds for much less (for example Italy vs. Uruguay, or Ecuador vs. France).

 

The leniency on hard fouls has really made smaller, more technical players struggle, and its led to some pretty gruesome to watch matches. 

Edited July 5, 2014 by digitalmountain

[uhhuh69]

apparently if Zuniga's challenge on Neymar (which led to the broken vertebrae) was an inch higher, it could've potentially paralyzed him. shame really, Neymar is a cunt

[034936]

fifa definitely must take at least some responsibility for that injury

[ilovefriedchicken]

am i the only one that thinks brazil still has a shot against germany?

yes they lost silva and neymar but germanys dealing with their own injury issues

 

not to mention homefield advantage and getting away with dirty play

 

brazil still has a crapload of talent.  put dani alves in and move either him or maicon to cb.  yes not ideal but maicon was surprisingly good at marking last game.  loss of neymars gonna hurt but its not like he and fred were getting equal touches.  they can slot any of their bajillion decent mf's to lw or just another attacking mid

 

germany still favorites but i wouldnt write brazil off

[digitalmountain]

^ I agree that Brazil still got a shot, it just seems more unlikely. 

 

Your suggested subs are a bit wild though, short Dani Alves as CB would be a funny sight, but a horrible idea.. same to a lesser extent for Maicon..

 

I think they're going to bring in Dante, who is playing consistently well for Bayern. He's a bit overlooked, imo better defender than reckless Luiz. Together with Gustavo back in the formation that should work in terms of defensive stability, but the bigger problem is offense. Probably Willian is going to come in on the left, but he is nothing like Neymar in terms of holding the ball after the long passes on which the Brazil midfield insists for some reason. So even more than goal-scoring, Neymar's absence will hamper build-up play. Oscar or the two DM will have to step up. 

Edited July 5, 2014 by digitalmountain

[Rob060]

of all the teams in the semifinals, brazil is the one i want to win it the least. would love to see messi carry argentina all the way and further cement himself as one of the alltime greats. would also be nice to see netherlands finally get themselves a world cup after 3 failed attempts and it's hard not to like germany. they're the most consistent and classy team in europe, but it's still been 24 years since they've had a world cup.

 

that netherlands costa rica game though. i was really rooting for netherlands and now i know what it was like for the belgians watching the US game. costa rica provided a nice story for the early stages but i'm glad they got knocked out. i'd rather watch 2 teams that want to attack rather than one wanting to attack and the other defending for their life.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Rob060

[JoseRizal]

Brazil is going to lose to Germany. And if they win? It's cuz of the ref. James Rodriguez got fucked in the ass countless of times and didn't get no call whatsoever. Fernandhino had gotten 0 card that match and that dude committed all sort of foul on James left and right. I see it as karma as to what happened to Neymar to the guys in power that wants Brazil to win. Without Silva, they will have a hard time defending the Germans. Neymar puts pressure on MF And without Neymar, German MF will have a field day in the middle of the pitch

[uhhuh69]

wonder if we'll be seeing any costa rican and columbian players come to the premier league, bundesliga, la liga etc

[Rob060]

joel campbell is already the property of arsenal, he's just spent all his time on loan. james and cuadrado are probably the only ones that will be big money moves. james was bought by monaco for like 40 million, but that team may have a big exodus of players like barcelona this summer. could see him and falcao moving but probably not to the premier league.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Rob060

[ilovefriedchicken]

wtf am i watching

[jayrock]

lol screw u Brazil

[Fuuma]

wtf am i watching

The Germans think they're in Poland, this thing is brutal.

[Rob060]

Fuck that was an awesome half. Glorious Brazilian tears.

Apparently my cousin is walking the streets of Brazil right now with a Germany Jersey on. Hope he doesn't get killed.

Edited July 8, 2014 by Rob060

[uhhuh69]

nice to see Brazil get a beating, even if i didn't like the way the germans were playing against france